Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Once again, I know I am late on sharing my thoughts. Anyways, let's get on with it. I saw Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings almost two weeks ago, on a temporary release from child care that my wife gave me. I picked a theater where I knew there would be no one and at a time no one is going. I'm still not comfortable going to a theater full of people. 

In case you didn't know, this is the latest Marvel movie in the long running cinematic universe. Did I like it? Is the sky blue? Yes, yes I did. Not because I'm a Marvel zombie, but because I legitimately thought it was a good film.

When I was finished, what struck me the most is how different it felt from other Marvel movies. There are small ties to the larger MCU with some cameos here and there, but otherwise it is detached from all that continuity. That makes it refreshing. We also get some straight up Martial arts which puts it in the league of Captain America: Winter Soldier as the best hand to hand action we've seen in these films. Easily.

Also, in the name of representation, I am glad to see another part of the Marvel Universe represented here and that the cast is predominantly Asian. Hopefully it proves to be a big hit with Asians, as Black Panther was to black people. It shows the powers that be that, "Guess what? People want to see stories about other characters of other ethnicities."

So back to what I was saying before. This movie just feels different. It still has the Marvel kind of humor, but it feels unshackled by the weight of all the movies that came before as far as the style of movie. I have been watching a TON of Martial Arts movies on my Paternity leave and some of the imagery and the way the fight scenes are filmed feel like those kind of movies.

I am happy for Simu Liu and he was great in the role of Shang-Chi. He's a great addition to the Marvel Universe. For you martial arts fans, I didn't research it, but at least to my eyes, he did most of his own fighting here. That is also equally impressive. Once again, those fight scenes were GOOD too. That subway car scene is one example.

This next part sounds weird to say, but Awkwafina was less Awkwafina in this. She starts off that way, but mellows out and she grows within the story. I also loved her relationship with Shang-Chi in this. A couple of buddies going on a while adventure. She gets in a couple of good jokes throughout the movie, which I won't spoil. One that stands out is how she gives Shang-Chi crap about how he changed his name when he escaped to America.

I won't go through the rest of the cast, but we get the wonderful Michelle Yeoh, a surprise from Ben Kingsley and the introduction of Tony Leung to the Western World. 

In addition to the martial arts, this movie is definitely centered around some daddy issues that Shang-Chi has and how he navigates that while trying to figure out who he is and who he wants to be. I think we can all relate to that. This certainly touched me.

One last thing I want to mention before I get to something I didn't like. The music. I love orchestrated scores and prefer those to big moments of action over some cutesy song that is over the action (re: Captain Marvel, The Suicide Squad). The music here is very good and also reminiscent of these kind of Martial Arts movies.

If I have one nitpick with this movie, is I don't love some of the final fight scene. I don't want to go into details, but let's say that it gave me Animality vibes from the Mortal Kombat: Annihilation movie and that is not a good thing. Nor do I love fight scenes that have people shooting laser blasts at each other, which sorta, kinda happens here at the end. 

I know people are burnt out on Marvel movies and I get that. HOWEVER, I think you should definitely check this out. You don't have to have seen any of the other movies to appreciate this one. It stands alone, but best believe he will get integrated into the other Marvel movies.

Marvel Voices: Identity #1

I'm back again to talk about a book that covers an identity I am not a part of. Look, I read things and I want to talk about them. My hopes is that they will interest you in them too. With that being said, let me talk about "Marvel Voices: Identity #1". There has been a number of these kind of issues and there will be more. I will attempt to talk about each of them.

So this particular issue focuses on characters of Pacific-Asian-Islander descent. Let's not ignore the fact that Shang-Chi is out in theaters, so the time was ripe to do something like this. Understandably, he gets the opening story in this book.

There are other books I need to pick up in this Marvel Voices line, but at least with the Pride on and this one, I feel like they are getting better curated. My main complaint about the Pride issue was how many characters they packed in and how it felt like Marvel was going to pull a muscle in their shoulder from patting themselves on the back so much.

The entire package for this issue is so much better. In addition to the stories, there is an excerpt of an interview from the great Larry Hama (who wrote Wolverine for YEARS and was the writer when I got into comics) that is a great read. He's done many other things, but it is Wolverine that is near and dear to my heart. There are also an open question posed to a number of creators about "What does identity meant to you?" and you get to see a wide array of answers to this question. Finally, the start of the book has a heartfelt note from the cartoonist, Rina Ayuyang. All of this helps to really sell the idea behind this book.

Now I will say this, Marvel does not have a wide array of characters to choose from historically. The past few years have seen a large uptick in these characters, which is a welcome change. The problem posed for some old school fans like myself is this: If you have not been reading in the past ten years, you will not recognize any of these new characters.

What we have here though is very good. Good writing and great art. We get stories about Shang-Chi, Jubilee, Jimmy Woo, Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), Wave (newer character), Silhouette (Deep cut if you read the New Warriors in the 90's), Armor and Brawn/Silk. If you don't know any of these characters, don't worry. You get a little bit about them through each story.

I want to give a shout out that it is great to see Whilce Portacio (old school 90's artist) drawing a story here.

As you can see, I didn't have any bad things to say here. I think it is refreshing and I'm glad I could learn a little bit about some other characters I may get more interested in. I wholeheartedly recommend picking up this book and giving it a shot.